Found Light in the Shadow (Solangelo)

Chapter Twelve

Will

I'm not sure exactly how long that we had been falling. Minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like days. Every time that I looked at my watch, it was either not ticking at all or spinning really fast. Nico told us part way through the plunge that he thought that the time fluctuations had something to do with Kronos' essence in Tartarus. Even in hundreds of little pieces, he was still wreaking havoc over things. The pit was made in a way that made it almost impossible for the monsters to escape, but it was really easy to get in. I will say one thing; the free fall was definitely not what I had expected. It didn't feel like we were plummeting to our deaths, it was more like being in a controlled fall. The warm air coming up from the pit seemed to keep our fall at a steady pace. Once I could start to smell the horrible sulfur, I knew that we were getting close to the bottom. An eerie, reddish glow, started to appear below us.

"Get ready," Nico said, "the impact is going to be pretty abrupt. It shouldn't hurt much, but it's enough to knock the wind out of us."

As the glow started to get brighter, I knew that we were getting closer to the bottom. I tightened my grip on my husband's hand and pulled myself right beside him. We shared a quick kiss right before the cavern opened up beneath us. I thought that I had mentally prepared myself for the impact, however, I was gravely mistaken. Nico was right about one thing, it definitely knocked the wind out of me. All three of us laid on the ground for a few minutes before anyone moved.

"Ouch."

Reyna mumbled, "'ouch', is the understatement of the day, that fucking hurt."

Nico let go of Reyna's hand and moved it under his mid-section. "I think that I landed on my nuts."

Reyna and I both started to chuckle, but we both stopped shortly after we started. It hurt to much to laugh and I was assuming that Reyna felt the same way. Any other time I would offer to help make Nico's injuries feel better, but this was hardly the time or the place. After a few more minutes, we started to get up and assess the situation.

We were alive and now safely in Tartarus: Check.

Our gear was still securely attached to our backs: Check.

We were in the pit of eternal damnation with no guarantee of making it out alive: Check.

As we slowly got back up on our feet, we started to look around. There wasn't a monster to be found in sight. At first, I thought that this was a good thing, but then Nico had to go and ruin my mood. "Tartarus should be full of monsters right now, something isn't right here."

"Well, let's hope it stays empty until we find Bob."

We dusted ourselves off and carefully started our journey across Tartarus. I made sure that all three of us ate some ambrosia and had some nectar before we started off. Sadly, Tartarus was exactly as I had dreamed it to be. The sulfur in the air burned my eyes and dried out my throat. It was definitely hot down here, but not unbearable. Still, my shirt was soaked before we finished walking the first mile or so. Nico looked like he was pretty drenched as well, however, I knew that this time his shirt wouldn't be coming off. Everything just looked gray, regardless of what it was. A smokey haze seemed to be everywhere, making it hard to see too far into the distance. Every so often, we would hear voices or something moving off in the distance. The three of us would hide where ever we could until the threat had moved on.

We had tried to keep moving as much as possible, but after a while hunger was starting to overtake us. Reyna pointed out some boulders off in the distance, so we headed towards them. The three of us hid between the rocks and dug something to eat out of our packs. After there was enough food in us to keep us going, we continued wandering through Tartarus.